November 2017

A comic strip depicts how one New Orleans school’s emphasis on student safety and emotional well-being has helped a 13-year-old navigate a family crisis. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/10/the-educators-helping-students-through-trauma/544188/

More than one million children in California have a special health care need. These children have chronic physical, developmental, behavioral or emotional conditions that require more than routine health and related services. Sixty-one percent of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) have had one more adverse experience. Understanding the factors that impact these children and their families is crucial to lifelong health and wellness. Kidsdata.org , a program of the Lucile Packard...

In the painful aftermath of the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Tex., that left 26 people dead on Sunday, we asked readers affected by similar attacks to share their experiences and tell us how they have coped, in the hopes that any advice they offer might help others facing such a tragedy. We heard from more than 150 people in less than a day. Their responses suggest that such mass killings touch myriad lives — bystanders, first responders, close-knit communities, the families and...

Malia* and her friend were driving in Pearl, Mississippi, one day in August last year, out looking for jobs. Malia, who is in her 20s, was in the passenger seat, and her 4-month-old baby rode in a car seat in the back. Suddenly, a Pearl police officer pulled the vehicle over for a traffic violation involving using a phone while driving. The officer ran Malia and her friend’s names and found they both had outstanding warrants for routine misdemeanor offenses, meaning that Malia had not paid...

More mental health providers may want to take a closer look at including exercise in their patients' treatment plans, a new study suggests. Michigan State University and University of Michigan researchers asked 295 patients receiving treatment at a mental health clinic whether they wanted to be more physically active and if exercise helped improve their mood and anxiety. They also asked if patients wanted their therapist to help them become more active. Eighty-five percent said they wanted...

GK editorial - here is an article written by Lori Chelius & Andi Fetzner from Origins Training & Consulting . These two met at the 2017 ACEs Conference in San Francisco and realized their passions, experiences and interests were complementary and now a year later we have Origins! Take a look at the some great examples of real life Resilience Champions! (FYI, they are both active members of ACEs Connection). As she describes in her TED Talk from 2015 , when Nadine Burke Harris...

"Presented are the latest data documenting the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) among children in the United States. ACEs include a range of experiences that can lead to trauma and toxic stress and impact children’s brain development and physical, social, mental, emotional, and behavioral health and well-being. There is growing evidence that it is the general experience of multiple ACEs, rather than the specific individual impact of any one experience, that matters." [All...

Many mistakenly believe that resilience is about grit - "toughing it out" or "persevering through hardship." Many talk about the need for a growth mindset in order to overcome adversity. Mindset is important but CANNOT be accessed in the absence of nervous system regulation. Fortunately, a new paradigm supported by research is emerging about what constitutes resilience. Resilience is about the nervous system - the body's stress response and its ability to remain in a healthy range of...

The last time the mayor of Seattle was a woman was in 1926 . When Bertha Knight Landes ran, local papers assured voters that she was “plain” and “unassuming,” that she went to church, that she was not a “chattering woman” or perhaps worse, that she was not a “new woman” either. When she won, Landes made history, and not only in the city: As the first woman mayor of Seattle, she also became the first woman to be elected mayor of any major U.S. city. On Tuesday, almost 100 years since Landes...

As more victims speak out about their allegations, employers — including NPR — are having to confront the failure of their sexual harassment training and reporting systems. Even trainers themselves say the system has failed. "We have been checking the box for decades," says Patricia Wise, an employment attorney who served on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision's task force on harassment. "I don't think people have been very motivated." [For more on this story by YUKI NOGUCHI, go to...

The 5-mile hikes, yoga classes and communal dinners are now routines for the residents at PDX Commons Cohousing in Portland, Ore. These 39 individuals (about half partnered but largely strangers at first) started forging relationships well before they moved in late this summer to join a trend called cohousing . “Here, you walk in and know every one of the people and you know them well,” said Steve Fisher, 63, a retired transportation planner who leads the weekly hikes. He and his wife moved...

The Department of Homeland Security announced this week that it would end temporary residency status for Nicaraguans. The decision comes amid an apparent bid by the Trump administration to return escapees of humanitarian disaster back to their home countries, a move that immigrant advocates warn could provoke humanitarian crisis. DHS's decision, issued late Monday, means that the government is stripping legal residency for more than 2,000 Nicaraguans. It has also delayed its decision on...